''Iberis amara'', called wild candytuft, rocket candytuft and bitter candytuft, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...

, native to Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. It has been introduced to numerous locations including Algeria, Sweden, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Indian Subcontinent, Korea, Far Eastern Russia, New Zealand, Argentina, Ecuador, Hispaniola, the United States, and Canada. It prefers to grow in warm and sunny conditions, in high-calcium soil.

Description

''I. amara'' is a branched erect annual typically tall, sometimes reaching . Its stems are more or less hairy below and glabrous above, with leaves scattered along their lengths. Leaf blades are simple, with those lower on the stem spathulate and reaching about long and wide, and those higher up lanceolate or oblongcuneate and as small as long and wide. All are more or less sparsely dentate towards their apices. The ebracteate inflorescence is a lax racemose corymb, bearing 10 to 30 flowers, and elongating to when in fruit. Individual flowers are about across, borne on a filiform pedicel, which is either spreading or ascending, and about long. There are four petals, which in wildtype individuals are white or pale violet, with cultivated varieties available in deeper shades of pink, violet or fuchsia. The petals are prominently unequal, with the outer two nearly twice as long as the sepals. This is controlled by the timing of the expression of the ''IaTCP1'' gene (a member of the

TCP protein domain In molecular biology, the protein domain TCP is actually a family of transcription factors named after: teosinte branched 1 (tb1, ''Zea mays'' (Maize)), cycloidea (cyc) (''Antirrhinum majus'') (Garden snapdragon) and PCF in rice (''Oryza sativa'' ...

family), which induces extra cell proliferation in the two larger petals, which are long, obovate-oblong, and cuneate beneath. The suborbicular siliculae (fruit) are typically , reaching in diameter, with deeply notched apices, and wings which widen somewhat towards the top. The styles are as long as or slightly exceed the apical notch, with valves that have reticulate veins. The reddish-brown seeds are about long, broadly ovate, and weakly winged beneath.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q141728 amara Garden plants of Europe Flora of Great Britain Flora of Spain Flora of France Flora of Belgium Flora of Germany Flora of Switzerland Flora of Italy Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Plants described in 1753